


The Bride

by fangasmic



Series: The Ballad of Cold Oak [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-25 20:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14984837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangasmic/pseuds/fangasmic
Summary: "Marry in blue, lover be true," wasn't how it went at all.





	The Bride

Lial has nightmares sometimes.  They ain’t of anything that actually ought to be terrifying, like being shot at or being stuck in a burning building, though he has had those kind on occasion, but of the hardest day of his life.

It’s always the same, exactly like it was that day.  The sun’s shining through the windows of the church.  Essie, dressed in her fine blue satin gown.  He remembers staying up late with her, watching her sew on all the shimmery little pearl beads by hand.

“Marry in blue, lover be true,” she’d told him.

‘Cept Luce weren’t true, not in the least.

Lial dreams of standing at the doors of the church, staring down the aisle at his beautiful sister.  She’d looked so happy, smiling in a way she ain’t done since before their Pa ran off.  There’s a sort of look on Pastor Jim’s face, like he knows what Lial’s about to say, and Essie’s fingers get real tight around her flowers, making them droop something fierce.

They’d looked all over town, him and Leth and Raum.  Every place they could think of.  They’d even begged help from Sheriff and Deputy Novak to no end.

It’d been May that’d told him.  Pretty, sad May.  He pities her, having to explain it to them all.  Having to say that Luce’d done run off with Essie’s best whore, Lilith.  Lial knows how hard it is because he had to do it too.  Had to walk up that aisle with the whole town staring at him and whisper quietly to Essie that Luce weren’t coming.

He sees her face in his dreams, feels her crumple again and again, but never to her knees, not once, because Lial wouldn’t let her.  Essie’s a proud woman and strong.  He wasn’t about to let Luce Shepherd bring her to her knees and shame her in front of all their friends.

Lial wakes up sweating some nights, chilled to the bone by the little howl Essie let out against his coat.  He can’t get back to his rest until he picks up a lantern and makes sure that she’s in her own bed just down the hall.

Standing in the doorway, watching her sleep, and knowing that she weathered the trial, Lial finds the peace he needs to go back to his own bed and sleep 'til morning comes.

**Author's Note:**

> Reposting the NRFTW Western AU. All credit for the original characters is to the beautiful writers who brought them to life.


End file.
